Crux
by rawrchelle
Summary: It is a fact that Sakura loves Sasuke. Everyone knows it. No one questions it. Which is why Ino is flabbergasted when Sakura tells her that she's...trying to move on? By dating other people? Who are not Sasuke? Life is just the most delightful mix of friendship, awkward romance, and many, many surprises.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:** This story is less about specific pairings and more about Sakura and Ino's friendship, and romance in general. I had a specific pairing as the end goal, but as I wrote, Sakura demanded someone else, and hey, who am I to deny her? I just wanted to write something small, but as per usual, it grew and grew and consumed my entire life. Shall we say a new chapter every week?

A lot of great things have been happening in my life and I am dipping my toes back into Naruto, and subsequently, writing. I really have missed this.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"Okay, so, I did a thing." Sakura begins talking before she even fully sits in her chair.

"A thing," Ino repeats, slightly incredulous.

"Yeah. A thing. Don't judge me, okay?" Ino shrugs as if to say _I never judge you_, even though they both know it's not true. "So I thought that maybe…maybe, I don't know, I could try…dating."

Ino blinks. "Dating."

"Could you try not repeating everything I say?"

"I just—wait, what? Really?" Out of all the things that Sakura could've said after declaring having _done a thing_, dating wasn't even one of the possibilities that came to Ino's mind. She could've gone too far and demolished one of the indoor training arenas. She could've finally gathered the courage to submit her proposal on introducing science based sex education into the school curriculum to the Council. She could've done _literally anything else _and Ino wouldn't have been surprised. But dating? "Why?"

"I mean, Sasuke's never coming home, right? I'd be wasting my life away if I waited for him. And I guess I thought…if I never put myself out there, maybe I'd never really get over him. If Sasuke's my only reference point to romance—and let's be real, we were hardly even friends—I'll never know what romance is, right? Oh yes, I'll have my usual, please." Sakura only stops her train of thought when the waitress approaches to take her order.

Ino watches Sakura as she shifts in her seat for a more comfortable position. "So," she finally says after much deliberation, "who will you date?"

"…Okay, so this is the part where you don't judge me."

"As long as it's not Lee, I will not judge. I swear." Ino holds her hand up as if swearing an oath.

"It's, um…it's Kiba."

She shouldn't have sworn an oath…

The longer it takes for Ino to reply, the more Sakura's eyes narrow. Are they narrowing with accusation? With anxiety? Ino couldn't really tell because _holy shit_, Sakura is going to date Kiba.

"Talk me through your thought process," she finally manages. "I would love to hear your reasons."

Sakura shrugs. "There aren't really any reasons. He's made it pretty clear in the past few months that he's interested me and my standards right now are pretty much _anyone but Sasuke_, so when he asked me out the other day…"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Ino holds up her hands. "You can't set the bar that low. You can't just date anyone. You're Haruno Sakura! Half of the men in the village don't deserve you." Sakura blushes and averts her gaze down at the table. "Seriously! Apart from me, you're basically the most accomplished kunoichi of our generation for reasons that you don't need me saying—"

"Okay, I wouldn't exactly say that you're more accomplished than I am—"

"And you just _can't date trash_, okay? Promise me you won't date trash."

"Yeah yeah, okay. I won't date trash."

It is at this point that their drinks arrive and Sakura decides that this topic of conversation has outstayed its welcome. Ino lets it go, because—well, because it seems like time has changed them both for the better—Sakura to be braver, and Ino to be softer.

—

When they meet again a week later at the same tea house, she is eager to hear about Sakura's date with Kiba.

If asked, Sakura could probably say exactly how long Sasuke has defected for. Ino doesn't keep as close of a count, but she does know that it's closing in on ten years, which is why she was so shocked with Sakura brought up dating. Sakura, who had loved Sasuke since she was a child and continued to love him for an entire decade after he tossed her and Naruto aside had convinced everyone, not just Ino, that she was not interested in any other men.

But _now_…now, word travels fast. Partially because the village is full of gossipers, but mostly because Kiba doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut.

"So?" Ino prods eagerly.

"So," Sakura repeats as a stalling tactic.

"Oh, come on, don't keep me waiting. People have been talking for _days_."

"Yeah, I don't really know why they do that," Sakura mutters, burying her face in the menu even though she orders the same drink every time. "Aren't there more interesting things going on?"

"Uh, _no_. So how did it go with Kiba? Were there good vibes?" Ino leans in, ready to pick up any sort of embarrassed mumbling Sakura might produce.

"I mean, sort of? He was nice—"

"Where did you guys go?"

"The dog park. We definitely had things to talk about and it wasn't awkward or anything—"

"Did he try to kiss you?"

"No, and stop interrupting me—"

"He definitely tried to kiss me when he took me to the dog park."

"Well, you have a different reputation from me. I don't kiss on the first date."

"Yeah, because you don't kiss at all."

Sakura glares, and Ino tries not to grin too wide. "Anyway. He was nice, and the conversation wasn't bad, but I guess…I didn't really feel any sort of attraction? Like, with Sasuke, whenever we were in the same room, half my brain would always be paying attention to him. He always distracted me from anything I did. But I was more entranced by Akamaru than Kiba."

"Yeah, I feel that. Dogs are awesome." Ino decides to keep it a secret that there was a period of a few months when she would meet Kiba at the training grounds after dark and just make out a whole bunch. "So do you think you'll see him again?"

"Probably not. I might not really know what romance is like, but I know it's not that."

"I agree. I think there are better guys for you."

"Like who?"

Ino thinks for a moment. "Shikamaru, maybe?"

Sakura's eyebrows shoot up, eyes wide with surprise, and then she bursts into laughter, clearly assuming that Ino had made a joke. "Shikamaru? The one guy you've ever seriously dated?"

"It wasn't _that _serious of a relationship!"

"You guys dated for a year, Ino. That's pretty serious. That's moving-in-together serious."

Ino shrugs and looks away. "It's been a while since we broke up. I'm okay now. And anyway, we had fundamental problems between us, like how he felt I was high maintenance, and how I felt like he didn't care. We weren't good for each other." She says this, but she still feels a slight pang whenever she thinks about him.

"Yeah, well, even still, I wouldn't date one of your exes. That's just wrong. I'd be indirectly kissing you."

"Ew, Sakura, what the hell? Why do you have to make it gross?"

"I'm just saying!"

She waves her hand, dismissing Sakura's worries. "We're shinobi. Our dating pool is tiny, there's bound to be some overlap. Go for it if you feel it's right." But maybe not immediately, she thinks. Maybe after a little more time, when the wound is less raw, when the void in her life doesn't yearn for Shikamaru.

"I'll think about it if he ever asks me out," Sakura says, picking at a hangnail. "Dating is hard. It's hard to put yourself out there."

"You get used to it."

"Easy for you to say, you almost never get rejected."

"Well, neither would you, but it's not like you'd know because you've never asked anyone out before."

"Fair point. I guess I'll keep an eye out." A moment of silence, and then Sakura sighs, shoulders slumping. "Ino…what if I never get over Sasuke? He was basically the Great Love of my youth, and…what if that's it? What if people don't get a second chance?"

Sakura's pulling out the big questions now, and Ino doesn't have the answers. The same question plagues her sometimes, too. "All I know is that if you don't try, then he will be the only Great Love you'll ever have. And you deserve so much better than Sasuke." Sakura's eyes are downcast, unbelieving. "You just have to try."

"Okay." Her voice is smaller now. "It just feels a little hopeless, you know?"

Ino smiles weakly.

"Believe me, I know."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It's a few weeks of conversations about missions, politics, and potentially taking the jounin exam but honestly it's such a hassle, before Sakura brings up her love life again.

"So I may have asked Neji out for dinner…"

Ino balks. "Neji?"

"I think I have a thing for emotionally distant men."

"Clearly," Ino mutters, thinking about how cold Neji is on every single occasion he's crossed paths with her. "Did he say yes?"

"Yeah! I was convinced that he and Tenten were dating, so then I asked Lee, and—oh my God, did you know that Tenten is _gay_?"

Ino stares at Sakura, confusion clear on her face. "Uh, yeah. That's old news. Where have you been? She's been dating some Academy teacher for a while now."

Sakura slams her hands hard enough on the table that the tea house falls silent for an excruciatingly long moment. "I can't believe you didn't tell me! You work at a flower shop and hear all the latest dating gossip and you kept this from me?"

"_Sorry_, how was I supposed to know? You hardly talk to Tenten, and you didn't care nearly as much when I told you Shino is gay." Ino huffs. "And I don't work in a flower shop; I am a kunoichi whose family happens to also run a flower shop. Get your facts straight."

"I just…wow. I never thought." Sakura slumps back in her chair with a look of wonder in her eyes. "The universe is so vast. There is so much I don't know."

"What _I_ want to know," Ino implores, leaning forward, "is how Lee reacted to you being interested in Neji."

"He was _so_ sad." The guilt is evident in Sakura's voice. "I felt really bad."

"Okay, so hear me out. His fashion choices are atrocious, right? And the hair is pretty awful. And the eyebrows could use some waxing. And he could probably tone down his enthusiasm by about seventy percent. _But_, if you guys dated, he would never treat you badly. He would always put you first."

"I mean, true. But I'm also not attracted to him in the slightest."

"Neji _has no pupils_."

"Okay, practically no shinobi looks normal, so it's just about deciding which physical feature is the least weird. Sasuke has the Sharingan, so the Byakugan isn't that huge of a stretch. And also, Neji is mysterious and talented—ooh, he could give me tips for the jounin exam!" Ah, yes, Ino remembers. Neji passed that exam on his first try two years ago.

"Such pure intentions for dating a man," she teases.

"Oh, shut up, you'd go on a date with anyone if it meant getting free dinner."

"You're not wrong. When are you seeing him?"

"Tomorrow night."

"Where are you going?"

"The new restaurant down the street that does Water Country cuisine! I'm super excited, I've heard people say it's really good."

Ino wrinkles her nose. _Fish._ In her opinion, that's not the kind of food a person eats if they plan to kiss someone in the same night, but then again, she also doesn't think anyone should eat fish on any occasion ever.

"Well, whatever you do, don't make eye contact for too long. Those empty eyes of his might just pull your soul of your body in attempt to fill their void."

Sakura scowls and throws a napkin at Ino.

—

Another week goes by, and Ino is mad with impatience. Her fingers tap sharply against the table as she waits for Sakura to arrive, each second passing slower than the last. When the jingle of the bell sounds as the door opens, revealing a flash of pink, she glares at Sakura until she notices.

Sakura sits down and blinks at Ino's foul expression. "What?"

Ino crosses her arms. "You're late."

"Only by a few minutes! Geez, calm down."

"But you have things to tell me! So many things!" By so many things, what Ino means is that Sakura and Neji didn't just go on one date—they went on _two_. And Sakura just dangled this information in front of Ino without providing any further details when they saw each other in passing outside the Hokage's office yesterday, so needless to say, Ino is antsy.

"Yes. Things." Sakura's cheeks are rosy with a blush, and Ino's excitement burns hotter. Is Sakura infatuated? Is this the beginning of true love? Could the Era of Sasuke _finally_ be over? "He's just, I don't know, so sure of himself? His confidence is so attractive. Oh God Ino, I don't know, he made me so nervous I hardly spoke! I kind of understand why Hinata is the way she is now; he probably tormented her with his presence alone while they were growing up." The more Sakura gushes, the redder her face gets.

"Well that's great, isn't it? Especially since you guys went on a second date." Although 'torment' isn't exactly a word Ino would use when describing someone positively… "Do you think you could like him more than Sasuke?"

"That's a bit far off right now…I don't really know." Sakura drifts off into silence, maybe thinking about Sasuke, or Neji, or both, and Ino knows better than to ask. As close as she is to Sakura, there are certain things that even they don't prod about. Ino never asks the hard-hitting questions about Sasuke because that's Sakura's greatest wound—because she dedicated nearly the entirety of her life to that Uchiha and there will be a hundred million things that are too private and too precious for Ino to ever know. The same way Sakura never expects Ino to talk about Asuma's death, even if she is always open to listen.

She swallows the lump in her throat at the memory of her late teacher, and turns her thoughts to brighter things instead.

"Have you and Neji kissed?" The way Sakura's face turns bright red is enough of an answer for her. "Your first kiss! It's about time you got that out of the way!"

"Shut _up_ Ino, we're in public," Sakura hisses.

"Not having your first kiss until your twenties is nothing to be ashamed of," Ino singsongs just a little too loudly, attracting glances from some other customers in the tea house.

Sakura's glare is sharp enough to cut glass, but fortunately, Ino is made of diamond.

—

As a shinobi, one learns quickly that a knock on the door late in the evening tends to be bad news. Ino braces herself for the worst as she pulls herself off her couch, her oversized pajama pants dragging on the wooden floorboards.

"Oh." She can't help but breathe a sigh of relief to see that it's Sakura and not some grimly silent ANBU bearing heartbreaking news. But in Sakura's hands are grocery bags that look suspiciously full of wine and ice cream, so whatever had her coming over at this hour can't be that great either.

Sakura bustles in past Ino without so much as a greeting, but this doesn't surprise her that much. She closes the door and watches with arms crossed as Sakura unloads the food on her kitchen table with purpose.

"So are you going to tell me who pissed you off?" she finally asks a minute later when Sakura is rummaging through her drawers for her corkscrew.

"No one pissed me off," Sakura replies, voice unnervingly even.

"Well then, who hurt you? Because _this_," Ino gestures broadly at whatever on earth is happening in her kitchen, "is something we do for _my_ emotional wellbeing, but I'm currently feeling pretty alright." It's another five seconds of Sakura rummaging around before Ino sighs and grabs her corkscrew off her coffee table and hands it to her, and when she does, Sakura finally stills.

"Neji told me he's not interested," she says quietly. (Truthfully, Ino figured as much, but there's no point in initiating the topic if Sakura isn't ready to talk about it.)

"But I thought things were going well?" Ino grabs the mint chocolate ice cream and enthusiastically digs in with a spoon.

"I thought so too. But I guess he changed his mind." Sakura doesn't even bother to pour the wine into a glass. Ino watches with a raised eyebrow as she swigs from the bottle. "He said he _thought I was different_. What does that mean? Different from who?"

She shrugs. "Beats me. I wasn't third-wheeling your dates."

"Was I ever this bad at comforting you?"

Ino feels a pang of guilt in her stomach. It's true; Sakura was never sarcastic when she was upset. "Sorry. Maybe he was comparing you to someone else he was interested in? Or maybe you started acting different once you started dating?"

"…Maybe. I don't know." Sakura's eyes are clouded with doubt. "I've been so nervous on the dates that I can't really remember what I was like."

_That's totally it._ "The Sakura we all know doesn't get flustered. She's smart and strong and doesn't think much about people's opinions about her. Maybe that's the Sakura Neji got to know and that isn't the Sakura he spent time with on those dates." Ino thinks that Neji should be more perceptive to how Sakura feels about him and deduce the reason why she's so nervous around him, but then again, she always thought he was a bit socially inept.

Sakura is quiet for a long time. Ino remembers her early days of dating—how she tried to advertise herself as someone who's _not really_ herself, how she assumed that she needed to be different around a boyfriend than her friends and family.

Dating, she thinks, is just a series of awkward stumbles and missed high fives.

"Should I tell him?" Sakura finally asks. "Should I ask for another chance?"

"Well"—Ino thinks _no_, quite vehemently—"do you think he's worth it?"

"I spent a decade waiting for Sasuke, so I wouldn't say that I'm the best judge of who's worth it or not."

"This is true." Ino ponders. "Do you want my opinion?"

"Why not?"

She finally puts down her spoon, gazing at the container of mint chocolate ice cream that is miraculously half gone. "I think you like Neji because he reminds you of Sasuke, not because you actually like him for who he is."

"What if that's just my type?"

"But you started liking Sasuke when we were children, before you knew about the darkness that he had. Your type isn't cold and angry, it's—it's however you used to see Sasuke. Back in school. Before…before everything."

Sakura's eyes are wet, but the tears don't fall. Ino bites her lip, wondering if she's gone too far—but truthfully, she thinks Sakura needs to hear this.

"I guess I just…" Sakura's voice is shaking. "It feels like if I actually fall in love with a guy who's completely different from Sasuke, then I'll really have wasted years of my life. And then it'll really feel like there's no part of him that's with me anymore. And I just…I don't know if I'll _ever_ be ready for that."

Ino knows this feeling all too well. Love is hard to keep, but in ways, it's even harder to let it go.

"No one's ever ready for things like that. You just jump in and try to stay afloat."

"But what if I can't?"

"Then you can't, until you wake up one day and realize that you can. That you _are_. And that you've been doing it for a long time without realizing."

Their gazes drift towards the bottle of wine in Sakura's hand, which is already half empty. Sakura hiccups, and then asks, "Are you staying afloat?"

With the attention now being redirected to her, Ino feels uncomfortable. She shrugs, acting aloof. "I'm doing my best to."

Sakura's shoulders, which until now have been tense, slump and relax. "You always seem like you have your life together, even when you don't. I'm jealous."

"Don't be. It's an unhealthy defense mechanism."

Her friend laughs for the first time that night. Ino's spirit lifts with the sound of her voice, and decides to let go of the fact that Sakura is mocking one of her greatest character flaws.

"I can see why you always do this when you're upset," Sakura says, gesturing towards the remaining wine and ice cream. "This is cathartic."

"Isn't it? Plus, being sad is the perfect excuse to drink as much as I want."

They talk for many hours after that, filling the night with light conversations that do not include Neji or Sasuke.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A few months ago, Ino would never be awake, dressed, and slowly nursing a cup of coffee at five o'clock in the morning. Getting eight hours of sleep every night is important for both brain functionality and clear skin, after all. But ever since Morino Ibiki took her under his wing at the Torture and Interrogation Force a few months ago, things have changed drastically. And it's not that he's particularly fond of early mornings, no—he often doesn't get in until late afternoon, and thoroughly enjoys working through the night. Ino hasn't slept at all, and she has a mission briefing with the Hokage in a few hours.

"He's really working you like a dog, huh?" A familiar voice rings in her ears, but she doesn't register who it is until she turns her head and sees red and pink.

"Oh. Sakura." A groggy pause. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I'm going to Suna, remember?"

"Why?" Ino's eyes widen. "Oh, God. You have a date with Gaara. You have no fear in your heart. The pain of losing Sasuke has made you numb and now you seek the most dangerous thing possible to bring you any sense of thrill and being alive."

Sakura stares at Ino like she's insane, and in all fairness, she probably is in this particular moment. "Uh, first of all, Gaara isn't a psychopath anymore. Secondly, I'm helping them set up their medic-nin training program. Didn't I tell you this already?"

Now that she mentions it, Ino does vaguely recall a conversation about this. It's distant and foggy.

"But actually, I _am_ seeing someone," Sakura continues when Ino doesn't fill the silence.

You see, the wording is different. To _go on a date_ with someone implies that it is tentative and uncertain from one meeting to the next. To _see someone_ implies continuity, guarantee, routine—and Ino would be more than a little ticked about Sakura not telling her if she had the ability to remember what happened ten minutes ago.

"Who is he?"

"You don't know him," Sakura answers, evasive.

Ino narrows her eyes. "I know _everyone_."

"I think it's safer to say that you know all the shinobi." Sakura watches her with even eyes, and it takes Ino a moment longer than it should for it to click.

"You're seeing a _peasant_?"

Sakura sits a little taller and straightens her shoulders, clearly offended. "You're the worst. There's nothing wrong with dating a civilian."

"Except for the fact that they can't possibly understand the kind of lives we lead."

Sakura knocks back the last of her coffee in one gulp and pushes her chair back. "Listen. I'll tell you more about him when I'm back and you've gotten some sleep and aren't a bitch about it. He's actually really great. I like him a lot."

"Mm." Ino ponders this new information with her chin resting on her palm. "Maybe Gaara wouldn't be a bad option after all. Y'know, Kazekage, impenetrable sand shield…you'd be pretty well off."

Sakura has already placed her money on the table and is making her exit. "Get some sleep, Ino!"

Ten minutes later, Ino finishes her second coffee and heads home to freshen up before seeing the Hokage. The sun is beginning to peek over the cliff face, warming the sky with light, but the streets are still quiet. She passes by Yakiniku Q and can almost see Shikamaru's silhouette leaning against the wall with crossed arms and eyes cast skywards, like she's seen so many times before while he waited for the rest of them to arrive.

She shakes her head, and the image is gone.

_Get a grip. It's been over half a year._

Unsurprisingly, it is not easy to get over someone if he's your teammate and you see him on a regular basis.

They fought a lot while they were dating, but it wasn't a fight that ended it. Maybe that's what made it hard for her—there was no one to blame. It was a quiet falling apart that she couldn't prevent, no matter how she looked at it. They were simply incompatible, and no amount of love could fix it.

_Although, did he really love me…?_ He was so nonchalant all the time that she could never really tell. That was the seed of doubt that fueled many of their fights.

She's so engrossed in her thoughts that it surprises her that she's arrived home. Ino sighs and rolls her shoulders, hearing a few cracks as she does so. There's no point in going through this over and over again. She and Shikamaru aren't together anymore, they haven't been in a long time, and they won't be ever again. Reliving their days together is doing nothing but hurting her.

Thankful that she no longer lives with her parents, she keeps her confident façade in her back pocket for a little while longer and steps wearily through her front door.

—

Later, standing in the Hokage's office and discovering that she must immediately depart on this new reconnaissance mission with Shikamaru (who she desperately doesn't want to see today), Shino (who she hasn't spoken more than ten words to in her life), and some newly promoted chuunin whose name she couldn't recall in her haze of sleep deprivation, she will regret not having a third cup of coffee, and perhaps a bottle of sake alongside it.

—

"I want to die," Sakura moans, slumping onto the table. "I have faced death on so many occasions and I am so upset right now that it did not take me."

"Tell me about it," Ino sighs, her voice as equally drained as Sakura's. "I deserve a month's worth of paid leave."

Between her training with Morino Ibiki and Sakura's constant trips to Suna (apparently, setting up a training program isn't as smooth as it appears to be), the two of them haven't had a proper sit down at the tea house in a month. It's a good thing Ino decided to forgo the jounin exam this time around—there is no way she would've had time to prepare for it.

"Wind Country bureaucracy is _infuriating_. I thought the Fire Country is outdated, but compared to them, we're decades ahead. Why are rich men so _stupid_? Why throw money at shinobi training programs just so more people will die, rather than funding medical programs that could save the lives of already existing shinobi? What a _complete_ waste of time and resources. I wasn't supposed to get involved after the first meeting since I'm not even a citizen, but Gaara is Naruto's friend so I'm reading statistics reports and writing proposals and going to meetings and I don't mind putting energy into things I'm passionate about, but _so help me God_, if I hear the daimyo say that nurses belong in the hospital and not the battlefield one more time, I will assassinate him mys—"

"Oookay, maybe you should stop there before someone arrests you."

"Nurses and medic-nin _are not even the same thing_!"

"Yeah, but I don't need telling." There is nothing Ino can do about Sakura's situation and they both know this, so she launches into her own tirade. "I think Ibiki might actually be insane. I think _I'm_ going insane. Do you know what goes on in the minds of criminals? You don't, and I promise that you don't want to know, but _I_ know because that's what my stupid jutsu does and I'm haunted by their thoughts. Plus, I'm breaking out all over my face."

Sakura's eyes briefly inspect her face, and Ino bristles.

"Why did we ever choose this profession?" her friend laments. "It is literally _the worst_."

"Because we're patriotic?" Ino offers. "I come from a whole line of shinobi—I didn't have a choice."

"Yeah, well, I did, and I clearly chose wrong." Sakura is muttering and fussing under her breath, but Ino can tell that this mood will pass. Their job is not an easy one, but they never truly mean it when they talk about having made the wrong decision. There is no career more rewarding than this one.

They sit together in a minute of comfortable silence before Ino changes the subject. "So. Your civilian man."

"Glad to hear he's not a peasant anymore."

"Yeah, that was shitty of me. Sorry."

"It's okay. He's an architect who specifically designs shinobi-related structures! Between commissions, he likes to get his hands dirty and help out with the actual construction of the buildings." Sakura's eyes, Ino notices, are sparkling. "That's how I met him—he's on the team that's building the new indoor training facilities and he injured his arm pretty badly. I'm working on his physio with him."

"Ooh, dating patients now, are you?"

"There are no rules against that. He's smart and sweet. It's actually really nice that he's a civilian, you know—I don't have to talk about shinobi things if I don't want to. Although he's been getting some pretty hefty earfuls about this whole Suna thing as of late."

Ino laughs. "And he still hasn't left you?"

"Surprisingly, no."

There is some hesitancy before her next question. "So are you guys…you know, exclusive?"

Sakura doesn't answer, but the blush warming her cheeks is all Ino needs to know.

"Wow." She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms. "Who would've thought that your first relationship is not only not with Sasuke, but not with a shinobi at all?"

"It's weird how things work out, isn't it?" Sakura is smiling—genuinely smiling, not faking it like she sometimes does when she just wants Ino off her case. "I like him, Ino. I really do. Not in a schoolgirl way like with Neji, and not in an obsessive way like with Sasuke. It's…it's easy with him, you know? I'm not worrying that he's going to disappear or die. I don't have to break my neck to impress him. And he's _nice_. He makes me laugh. He regularly takes time out of his week to spend with me."

"That's really great." Ino beams. She wonders what it's like to have someone like that in her life. She feels like she never quite got the full experience with Shikamaru. "I'm really happy for you. You're…you're really okay with the fact that he's not Sasuke?"

Sakura's smile diminishes a little and her gaze falls to the cup of tea that is gripped firmly between her palms. "These things take time," she says evenly. Ino can tell that she feels far more deeply than what she lets on, but she doesn't pry. "But I really do like Takeru. He's opposite from Sasuke in all the right ways."

She can imagine Sakura comparing the two men in her mind, from their appearances down to their tiny mannerisms. She's kind of crazy in that sense—it's what makes her a great medic, but it might not give her much peace in her everyday life.

"Well." She runs her palms along the wood table, as if smoothing something out. "I'm glad you like him. It's a good sign."

If Sakura can get over Sasuke, Ino can get over Shikamaru, right?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

And so begins, as she fondly calls it, the Era of Takeru.

Ino sees them walking past the flower shop together nearly every day for a week, talking and laughing, but Sakura doesn't actually introduce them until they have dinner together one evening after a late shift at the hospital. Takeru could not be more different from Sasuke (or what Ino remembers of Sasuke, anyway). His hair is a soft, light brown from all the hours working outdoors, and his skin has a warm glow to it. Freckles dot his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, and he smiles a _lot_. He speaks in complete sentences and he asks questions—conversations with Takeru could go on for hours, Ino discovers that first night, but never in a way where it feels like he's only talking about himself.

And whenever Sakura leans in, whether it's to whisper something to him or to brush a stray lock of hair back into place, his expression reveals nothing but the tips of his ears turn red.

Oh, if only green were a good color on Ino.

Sakura begins to spend less time with her. She brings Takeru to social gatherings with all of their shinobi friends, and while he speaks significantly less during those events, he's always listening, watching everyone intently with curious brown eyes. It's almost comical, how bland he looks in the sea of shinobi sporting their colorful garbs, emblazoned with their clan insignias.

But Ino can't remember the last time Sakura looked so consistently happy.

And if anything, doesn't Sakura deserve to be happy?

So Ino swallows her jealousy because Sakura deserves it. She deserves to be free of Sasuke. She deserves to live in the truth that there is more, so much more than the broken boy who left her behind.

It's Sakura's birthday and she's unwrapping gifts. After smiling politely at Naruto and thanking him for the Ichiraku gift card, she accepts a wrapped present from Takeru's hands. The air is full of energy, everyone excited to see what Takeru the civilian got Sakura the wonderful beautiful talented kunoichi.

Ino steps out of the room because she isn't sure if she can handle it. It hasn't warmed up enough for the evening breeze to be comfortable on the fourth floor balcony where Sakura lives, but it's better than whatever she's feeling inside.

She hears the door slide open and then shut. She doesn't need to turn around because the chakra signature is so familiar, like the presence of a curious deer watching her from afar.

"Birthday parties," Shikamaru drawls. "They're a total drag, huh?"

He knows she loves parties. The bigger, the better.

She stares up at the night sky. There are no clouds tonight. "I know I'm being unreasonable. I love Sakura. But sometimes it's hard to see her like this."

"What, happy?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a bitch, okay? I want everyone around me to be more miserable than I am because I'm awful and selfish."

She refuses to look at him, but she hears him light his cigarette. Smells the fumes as he exhales the first puff of smoke into the cold night. "I don't think wanting to be happy makes you a bitch."

"It does when you're jealous of your best friend."

She can practically feel him shrug under the moonlight. That's the thing about Shikamaru—no matter how much he thinks about something, he can never be bothered enough to show how he feels about it. It's infuriating, his nonchalance—enviable, even.

Ino snorts at herself. She's even jealous of Shikamaru now.

"I get jealous of people all the time," he tells her. She casts a skeptical glance at him.

"Really. Like who?"

"Chouji. He can get so fired up if food is involved. I want even half that energy. And Naruto. So much bad shit has happened to him and he's still finding a way to live his life with purpose. I get jealous of you sometimes, too."

"Me?" She can't hide the incredulousness from her voice. "Why?"

"Because you have drive. Ambition. Everyone thinks you're insane for working under Morino but you've never looked more fulfilled. All I want is a wife and some children and to live an exceptionally normal life, and I can't even do that. That's why—" He stops abruptly then, and the air between them stills.

"That's why what?" Her voice comes out barely above a whisper.

Shikamaru shrugs again, and stubs out his cigarette against the railing of Sakura's balcony. Ino wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Anyway, the point is, you can't control how you feel. But you can control what you do about it."

"How sagely," she says.

"Take it or leave it, it doesn't matter to me regardless."

They stand in silence for a few minutes, Shikamaru staring at the cloudless sky, and Ino at the horizon of the great beyond. The chill of the night air is sobering, sending goosebumps up her arms and a chill down her spine.

Finally, when it feels like she's calmed down, she leaves Shikamaru and returns inside.

—

At first, Ino was skeptical. Everyone probably was. It's unheard of for a shinobi to date a civilian and for it to work, but like she'd done her entire life, Sakura surprised everyone and did the impossible.

Ino hears stories about their dates, how he waits for her at the hospital to walk her home if she's working late (just for the company, because it's not like he'd be able to protect her from any danger that she couldn't handle herself), how she really thinks she's falling in love with him—and before Ino knows it, through stories alone, she knows Takeru better than she probably ever needs to know, and Christmas is around the corner and Sakura is running herself in circles trying to find the perfect gift for him.

Sakura's success story makes Ino forget about the reason why there's only one of its kind, and wonders if she should find a civilian man of her own.

But of course, that doesn't happen.

What _does_ happen is Kazuma. Kazuma is a young man two years her junior who had studied under Morino a year prior and quit after two months. He's since then left the field of torture and interrogation and returned to the regular shinobi life of just plain murder. He's the only person younger than her who's had enough courage to ask her out.

Ino doesn't think it'll last, but he's gutsy and snarky and sometimes says things that make her blush, so she'll keep seeing him for now.

When Ino tells her this, Sakura leans back in her seat and crosses her arms. "I don't know," she says, a look in her eyes that Ino can't quite discern. It's been a while since they've sat in this tea house and talked about her love life rather than Sakura's, and the focus on herself is making her uncomfortable. The feeling is slightly foreign.

She diverts the subject. "So, Christmas. Takeru. Have you found something yet?"

Something in Sakura crumbles. "_No._ I'm beginning to panic."

"You were already panicking two weeks ago."

"This whole dating thing is just so new to me." She keeps saying this, but she's been dating Takeru for nearly a year now. "What do civilians like?"

"I don't think it's a matter of what civilians like, but rather what _he_ likes," Ino says, which is an echo of what she said when Sakura was panicking about his birthday a few months prior. "Relax. He loves you. Anything that you get him will be the right thing."

"Actually, Ino…lately, I'm not so sure. That he loves me, I mean."

"Huh? Where did this come from?" It is clear as day to anyone with functioning eyes that Takeru is head over heels in love with Sakura. Just the way that he looks at her conveys that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her—and civilians live insanely long lives.

"So the last mission I was on was bad, remember?"

Ino does remember. She visited Sakura in the hospital (it was strange to see her as the patient and not the healer) and listened as Sakura detailed how they were ambushed—how Sai was nearly kidnapped and held hostage if not for Naruto, chakra flaring red and venomous. Those three have definitely been in more dire situations, but it was worse than it had been in a while. Sakura was brought in with severe chakra depletion, looking pale and gaunt, and Sai had a deep abdominal injury that was shoddily packed in the field by Naruto, who brought both of them home on his shoulders, feet trudging slowly and on the verge of collapsing himself.

"Takeru's been different ever since then. I don't really know what it is, but it feels like he sees me differently. Like I'm not the person he thought I was." Sakura has begun to gnaw on her bottom lip in anxiety.

Ino blinks. For someone so smart, it's odd how dumb Sakura can be about some things.

She notices Ino's expression. "What have I done now?"

"Of course he sees you differently, you doofus. The guy loves you to the moon and back, and this is pretty much the first time he's seen you so close to death. It's not a bad thing that he's scared shitless that you might just not come home one day."

It's like a dawning in Sakura's eyes when she understands what Ino is saying. "…Oh."

"We've made our peace with mortality, but people like Takeru die of like…old age and stuff. It's different for him."

"Do you think…" The speed at which Sakura's eyes begin to water makes Ino panic. "I mean, doesn't he deserve someone who can give him a full life of happiness? Oh God, Ino, what if I leave on a mission one day and I really _don't_ come home? What if I drop dead in another country and no one finds my body for weeks and he's just left at home wondering what happened? I—oh my God, I couldn't do that to him—"

She's begun to full on hyperventilate now. Ino stands up so abruptly her chair topples over and makes quick strides to pull Sakura to her feet as well. "Okay, okay. Walk with me." Her voice is commanding but soft, and she swiftly leads them both out of the tea house without causing too much of a scene.

"Focus, Sakura. Slow down." Sakura's cheeks are wet with tears and she has one of Ino's hands in an iron grip. "No one is dying today, okay? Not you, not me, not the old man who runs the newspaper stand."

"Maybe not today, but one day—"

"No one can control how they die. You could have a brain aneurysm tomorrow and be stuck in a coma for ten years. I could be kidnapped and then tortured and killed for information. Asuma-sensei died and now Kurenai is a single mom and _none of it's fair_, but we can't live our lives in fear. You know that."

Ino glares daggers at the people giving them looks as they walk past. After many long seconds, Sakura's grip on her hand finally loosens and her breathing begins to sound like breathing again and no longer like strangled wheezing. With her free hand, Ino rubs her back. The winter air is sobering.

"What if I'm just wasting Takeru's time?" she whispers. "I think I love him, Ino. I haven't told him that but I think I do. What if there's someone who's better for him than I am?"

"I don't really think I'm an expert on lasting relationships, but I think if you guys want to be together, you're just going to have to trust that things will work out."

Sakura sinks to her knees. Ino doesn't have the heart to point out that they're in the middle of the street, so she sits down as well. People are forced to walk around them like water flowing around a boulder. "Do you think somewhere in the back of his mind, Sasuke cared about me and Naruto and Kakashi-sensei? Do you think he knew that his desire for revenge was unquenchable, so he cut his ties with us so he wouldn't hold us back?"

_For God's sake, you've found an amazing love and you're still thinking about that selfish shit?_ "I'm going to take a wild guess and say that it was different for Sasuke."

"What if he's been missing us all this time? What if he's lonely? What if I just left him behind because I couldn't be patient just a little longer?"

"It's been a decade!" The shrillness of Ino's voice startles them both, but her patience has grown thin when it comes to this certain Uchiha. "When are you going to realize that it doesn't matter how he felt or what he thought? The point is that he leftyou guys without a word, never kept in touch, and on the rare occasions you saw each other, he tried to kill you! Intent can only go so far—he treated you like dirt and you're _still_ wondering if you did wrong by him? I refuse to believe that you still think that little of yourself!"

Sakura stares at her like a child that just received an intense scolding. "Ino," she says, voice small, "people are staring."

"I'm not the one who started it!"

Later, when they've gathered their bearings and Sakura heals the small fractures she inflicted upon Ino's poor fingers, she tells her about the night she's held close to her heart all these years. She tells Ino about finding Sasuke at Konoha's main gates in the dead of night, about the pleading and the crying—she tells her about the quiet _thank you_ she heard right before she lost consciousness, and upon listening to this story, Ino thinks that if she were Sakura, she would've held onto those two words for a decade too.

—

And then, suddenly. Unexpectedly. On a spring night like any other. She emerges from the Torture and Interrogation Office at two hours past midnight (an early night, by all accounts) and she sees him.

Uchiha Sasuke, wandering the streets like a lost man, the sterile light from a nearby streetlamp casting gaunt shadows over his face.

She stops in her tracks and her blood goes cold.

He glances at her momentarily so it's undeniable that he noticed her, but he continues walking as though he doesn't know her. It might as well be true—Sasuke likely doesn't know anyone in Konoha anymore. Ten years is plenty of time for people to change.

Many thoughts race through her mind at that moment. She wonders if he's here to destroy the village while it's asleep. She thinks about Sakura and Naruto and how they should be the first to know. She briefly considers trailing him to see what he's up to, but decides that it's a trend for him to have malicious intent towards the people from his past and she is too tired to properly fight him.

The road home is in front of her and beckoning, but instead, she makes a sharp left and practically flies to the Hokage's office.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** So I sort of know that Sasuke comes home by the end of Naruto, but I know none of the details. I've been trying to catch up since the manga ended, but I guess I'm bad with committing to poorly paced stories? (Sorry Kishimoto, it's hard not to point out the truth.)

Thank you to all the feedback I have received so far! It's really lovely to hear from both old and new readers.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Ino doesn't see Sakura for the next week. Naruto hounds Tsunade every day, demanding to see Sasuke. News of the Uchiha ghost spreads like a plague, and everywhere Ino goes, she hears whispers, even though it's supposed to be a secret.

Perhaps some things just demand to be known.

In ways, she's glad that Sakura is avoiding everyone because Ino wouldn't know what to say to her. Because she's spent nearly every night this past week in the same interrogation room as Sasuke. And he's been non-violent. And she's been in his head.

And what Sakura thought about him is true.

Ino finds it very difficult to believe that Uchiha Sasuke could feel compassion for anyone, but he does. He has always loved Sakura and Naruto.

Her jutsu doesn't allow her to see specific details, but she gets the broad strokes. She's in his head while someone else asks him questions. And he won't respond because she's in control, but she can see what he's thinking, feel what he's feeling. And sometimes it's so visceral, his all-consuming rage and his long-suppressed love, that she forgets who she is and drowns in it.

It's not her place, right? It's not up to her to tell Sakura. This is her job and that's why she knows, but these are things that Sasuke should share only if he wants to.

She sits on this information for two days more before she decides she doesn't give a shit about what Sasuke wants.

—

But Sakura doesn't react the way Ino thought she would. After being told that the man she's loved for the majority of her life has always felt the same about her, Sakura is oddly apathetic. Ino frowns deeply.

"Takeru broke up with me," Sakura says hoarsely.

It's only then that Ino notices the state that Sakura's apartment is in. Dirty clothes are strewn all over the couch, and the kitchen is littered with half-eaten instant ramen packages and is emitting an odd smell. And Sakura isn't looking too great either.

"I…don't understand. Why?"

"He's convinced I'm still in love with Sasuke."

Good lord. As if everything else isn't topsy-turvy enough already.

Recognizing how much of a mess Sakura is, she softens her voice. "Would you rather talk about Takeru or Sasuke?"

"Neither. Everything is too much right now."

"Okay."

So they sit on the floor of her smelly apartment and do not talk at all.

—

Ino stares into her cup, watching the miniscule ripples in the tea correspond with the tapping of her finger on the table.

"So I realized yesterday that I've been seeing Kazuma for a while. It's closing in on six months. What the hell? How did that happen?"

"I'm pretty sure you like him and aren't willing to admit it."

"Mm." Ino continues tapping. "Nah. Can't be it."

"The idea of happiness only being attainable by being with Shikamaru is engraved in your brain, and you can't accept that you could possibly find it anywhere else."

A pause. "Can't be it," she repeats. "Have you seen Takeru lately?"

Sakura gracefully accepts Ino's abrupt change in topic, as she often does. "I've been strategically avoiding him. I'll feel worse than I already do if I see him."

"You do realize that he loves you and wants to be with you, right?"

"He wouldn't have left me if he did."

Ino huffs, probably more aggressively than necessary, considering how her own relationship is (weirdly) going pretty well. "How do you think he felt? It's not like it was a secret that you were in love with Sasuke—what was he supposed to think when Sasuke came back? Sasuke's rugged, the last of his clan, could kill five people in five seconds—Takeru can't even kill a cockroach, and we know that because we watched him try that time at the hot springs. When you look at their skill sets, Takeru is kind of nothing compared to Sasuke."

"Don't say that," Sakura snaps, voice steely. "I don't care that he's not a shinobi. I care that he's kind and patient and apologizes even when I'm the one who did something wrong. When we were together, I couldn't imagine why I had ever loved Sasuke." Her eyes begin to water, and Ino prays that Sakura doesn't begin sobbing in the tea house.

"So why don't you make sure Takeru knows that? Because he obviously doesn't."

"We'd been together for so long! How can he doubt me? Would I stay with him if I didn't love him?"

"No one thought Sasuke would come back, Sakura," Ino says quietly. "Even when you decided to start dating, you still loved him. It's not out of the realm of possibility that you'd just settle for someone second best."

She wonders how Takeru feels, knowing that Sakura is part of a world that he would never understand. He'd never know the severe ache in his muscles after a full day of training. He'd never know the high stress situations of missions. He'd never know the comfort of the knowledge that sometimes, death isn't the worst thing that could happen to someone. And that loving a rogue shinobi could be seen as an obstacle, but not necessarily a deal breaker.

Ino wouldn't be able to do it. It would be too hard, to let go of the person you love every single day like that.

"I miss him," Sakura whispers. She sounds like the little girl Ino used to find crying all alone. "How do I prove to him that I don't see Sasuke that way anymore?"

"Well," Ino says, like the heroine swooping in to save the day like she had done so many times in the past, "talking to him might be a good start."

Sakura nods. The inherent trust she has in Ino is humbling.

She hopes that Sakura and Takeru can find a way to be together again. When they first started dating, she didn't think that they would last, but now she thinks anyone would be hard pressed to find two people who are better for each other.

—

At exactly five minutes from closing, Uchiha Sasuke walks into the Yamanaka flower shop.

Ino perks up at the sound of the bell as the door opens and closes, but when her eyes land on this dark and brooding individual, her expression goes sour.

_Oh, hell no._

Sasuke looks at her. "Excuse me?"

Shit. Did she say that out loud?

Ino clears her throat and straightens, as if she'd be able intimidate this man who has destroyed so much. "She hates flowers, you know."

(It's not true, but Sasuke doesn't have to know that.)

From the way he ignores her and does a quick scan of their selection, it's clear that he either doesn't believe her or doesn't care. Ino watches him like a hawk from behind the counter, inspecting his broad shoulders, the lightness of his steps, and remembers the days of her youth when she pined after him.

"Just one, huh?" she remarks at the white flower he brings to the till. "You think it'll be enough?"

What kind of man apologizes for years of mistreatment, abandonment, and attempted murder with a_ single flower_?

Sasuke regards her silently, eyes dark and unreadable, but Ino isn't fooled. He isn't as stone-cold as he appears to be—she knows it, and he knows she knows it.

"She will understand," he finally says. There is resolution in his voice.

She shrugs, and proceeds to wrap up the flower and ring in his order.

She keeps to herself that the chrysanthemum that he chose is a flower traditionally used for funerals.

—

"Babe." A hand closes around her wrist. "I've hardly seen you in nearly two weeks. Let me take you out."

"I can't today—I'm meeting Sakura." Ino successfully extricates herself from Kazuma's grasp, but not from his perplexed expression. "What?"

He shakes his head. "I'm offering you food, a romantic time, and possibly sex, and you're forsaking me for tea with Sakura?"

She laughs. "Look, we've known each other since we were kids. We've been through a lot together." Sakura was in Ino's life before Kazuma, and she will remain long after Kazuma. "How about this weekend? Are you free?"

He pretends to think, even though she knows the answer already. "Let me see…yup, totally free." His arm wraps around her lower back and he pulls her in for a deep kiss, disregarding the fact that they're in public in broad daylight. He's always been that way—unabashed, playful, daring—and Ino has grown accustomed to it. She smiles against his mouth.

"Meet me at the shop?" she asks when they part.

"You bet."

It's difficult to contain her impatience as she makes her way to the tea house. It's been two weeks since Sasuke bought that chrysanthemum from the shop, and Ino and Sakura have some catching up to do.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Hello hello, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! The next chapter won't be out on time because I'll be travelling, but I will post it as soon as possible.

The end is near! Fun fact: I originally wrote this as a short story but decided to split it up into chapters instead. And as we all know, all of my short stories are about the length of a short chaptered fic. Whoops.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The tea house is uncharacteristically quiet this day, stuck in the limbo between the time of afternoon snacks and dinnertime. Ino spots Sakura's hair in an instant, and within the next, she's swiftly seated across her best friend.

Sakura regards her with tired eyes. "So."

"So."

"There's only one good and accessible flower shop in Konoha, so you must know."

"I sold it to him myself."

Ino tries to read Sakura's face and deduce what happened between her and Sasuke, but Sakura has gotten better at concealing her thoughts over the years. Ino can guess, and she can certainly hope for a particularly outcome, but in the end, it wasn't her decision to make or her story to tell.

Sakura buries her face in her hands. "He must have asked someone. That, or he'd watched me for long enough to know when I have my night shifts. He was waiting outside the hospital for me."

"Not creepy at all," Ino says sagely with a nod.

"It was dark out and no one was around, and he was just sitting on a bench waiting. He got me a _flower_, Ino. Do you know how big that is?"

She blinks in confusion, because no, she doesn't know. But she remembers her conversation with Sasuke two weeks ago, and what he had said.

_She will understand._

Even after all this time, those two share something that Ino could never fathom. She used to like Sasuke, yes, but it was nothing compared to Sakura's faith. The way she held onto everything he said and did. And the way that that she will always, _always_ forgive him.

"I don't get it," she finally says after a minute of pondering. "But I guess it doesn't really matter that I don't."

"Sasuke isn't…he doesn't _do_ romance. He doesn't open up, ever. His idea of friendship with Naruto manifested as verbal abuse and constant rivalry. He hates looking weak. And he doesn't apologize, ever." Sakura swallows. "But he got me a flower."

Ino is suddenly thrust into a memory, faded but still visceral. It was her final fight with Shikamaru before they broke up. It was their anniversary; she had been counting down the days with jittery excitement, because it was the first anniversary that she'd be having with anyone. Shikamaru had said nothing about it, but she had just assumed that he was planning a surprise—he was lazy, sure, but not stupid. Not forgetful. He wouldn't just ignore an important date like that.

Except he did, and Ino couldn't wrap her mind around it. She was so upset and he couldn't understand why, couldn't see that celebrating a milestone was important to her even if three hundred sixty-five days was just an arbitrary number—

"_Would it have killed you to buy me some flowers?"_ she had screamed.

She looks at Sakura with new eyes.

"But he got you a flower."

They sit in silence for a long time, both lost in their own thoughts. Ino had always thought of herself as different from Sakura. She was convinced that she had outgrown her young infatuation for Sasuke and that she was more experienced, more mature—but then she jumped into a relationship with a man who couldn't have been less compatible with her and was never quite able to make her happy. Maybe she and Sakura aren't so different after all.

"So…" Her voice is quiet, tentative. "Are you and Sasuke together now? You know, happily ever after and all that?"

"If only it were that simple, right?"

Ino waits for her to continue.

"Even after that grand gesture"—yeah, that grand gesture of one measly flower—"I just couldn't stop thinking about Takeru. I mean, we had built so much together. And things were so easy with him. With Sasuke, it always hurt. Even now. Even when things are finally good. I just feel like love doesn't have to be that hard, you know? It can be easy. Someone can _want_ to make you happy and know exactly how to. Someone can comfort you just by sitting with you and surviving through the moment with you."

For some reason, Kazuma's face flashes before Ino's eyes.

"I talked to Takeru and told him everything that happened. And he said he wants to try again, after everything settles down. He said we shouldn't yet when everything is still so messy—you know, with shinobi things."

"Abandonment issues, emotional trauma, inability to trust, et cetera, et cetera."

"And I agree with him. It's just all so _complicated_. Because Naruto is so happy that Sasuke's back that he doesn't even care about all the baggage. Like how no one really trusts him, and how we're his only support system—and as if that's not complicated enough as it is, Sasuke told me he loves me—"

"Wait, what? He _said_ that?"

"—no—the _flower_, Ino, please try to keep up—"

"How do you know that from a single flower? Did you notice that it was a chrysanthemum? They're for funerals, you know."

"Because I understand him, okay? That's the thing. I still love him even if I don't _love_ him. And I think that's going to be really difficult for me and Takeru."

"But how is that any different from the other you're-a-shinobi-so-he-wouldn't-understand stuff?"

Sakura shrugs. "I don't know. But it is."

There must be so much to unpack for Team 7. It isn't as simple as things returning to the way they used to be. They're not kids anymore—the past decade changed all of them in ways they never expected. Naruto has lost more and gained more than anyone could imagine. Sakura somehow got even smarter than she already was, helped implement revolutionary policies in Konoha, and can topple over a tree with the flick of her finger. And Sasuke…well, Sasuke has faced more darkness than any of them.

"I bet that on your first date with Kiba, you never expected that things would end up like this."

Sakura turns to look out the window into the street. The sun is setting now, casting a warm glow on everything it touches, and with its steady descent, a calmness drapes upon Ino's heart.

"I never expected a lot of things that have happened to me," Sakura says, expression wistful. "But that's kind of the beauty of life, right? Things would be unbearably dull if everything was predictable."

"That's true. I mean, if we wanted things to be stable and safe, we wouldn't have chosen this profession."

As if sensing the natural lull in their conversation, the door to the tea house bursts open. The little bell rings aggressively and breaks the sleepy ambience. Ino's gaze snaps towards the door, but all she can really see is a blur of orange.

"Sakura!" Naruto grabs Sakura by the shoulders. Sakura, seemingly used to this, is unfazed. "You're late, you're late you're late!"

The bell on the door rings again, this time at a much more acceptable volume. Sasuke steps into the tea house in a far calmer manner than Naruto did, and scans the area. He locks eyes with Ino, but unsurprisingly, he does not greet her.

"Naruto, there's still ten minutes left, I'm not late to anything!"

"Dinner date?" Ino asks Naruto, who has now pulled up a chair and made himself at home at their little table meant for two.

"Yup! We've instilled a new tradition—Ichiraku at least once a week! It's a part of Sasuke's rehabilitation plan."

"Even though the amount of ramen one consumes has nothing to do with rehabilitation," Sakura points out.

"_Emotional_ rehabilitation, obviously," Ino says. Naruto wholeheartedly agrees with her, raving about how the combination of good noodles and good broth can strengthen any bond, and Sakura stares at her as if asking, _How could you do this to me?_ Ino feigns nonchalance, but there is a faint smirk on her lips.

Sasuke, still quiet, stays near the door: an acceptably safe distance away from them.

"What about Sai?" Ino asks. "Is he a part of this rehabilitation plan?"

Sakura and Naruto share a look that she can't decipher. "Judging from preliminary results," Sakura says carefully, "we decided that Sai should stay away for the time being."

"Mm." Ino nods slowly, letting her imagination roam with what event could have led them to this conclusion.

Her gaze returns to Sasuke like a magnet. He is determinedly disassociating with the three of them by staring in the opposite direction, at the seasonal menu on the wall. His arms are crossed and he's leaning against the door—wait, the door? Does he know he's doing that? Does he not realize that those things open and people walk through the openings they create?

With the scene in front of her, she could easily convince herself that the pains he caused Team 7 never happened.

And even as those three leave for their Ichiraku date, Ino remains seated and thinks about her own team—Shikamaru, unnervingly smart and infuriatingly lazy; and Chouji, so kind-hearted towards others but a bit of a coward and incredibly short-tempered when it comes to body shaming—and Asuma, who always smelled of smoke and knew the best ways to make them work together.

The sun is just barely still peeking over the rooftops of the buildings when she finally stands, and decides to spend the evening with Kazuma after all.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I'm sorry I didn't get a chapter up last week. The travelling was good, but things picked up right after I got back so I haven't had much time to spare writing any thought.

The next chapter is the last, except I'm not quite finished writing it yet…I'll try to get it up on time next week, but no promises. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's my personal favorite.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

With time, everything ends. Memories fade. People die. It's not so much a pessimistic view as much as it is a fact of life. Stories end. Friendships end. Happiness ends.

But so does darkness. And pain. If you give it enough time, the things that plague you at night will fade and you will wake up feeling lighter. Sometimes, the simple act of waiting can bring you a peace you didn't think you'd ever find.

Kazuma went off on an infiltration mission and was away for over a month. When he finally returned, Ino surprised both of them by demanding that they move in together. Sakura received a letter of thanks and an invitation to the opening ceremony of Suna's medic-nin training program. ("It's stuffy and formal, not at all fun," she had said when she told Ino about it, but the pride in her eyes betrayed her.)

And after a few difficult months of training, they both took the jounin exam and passed.

"We've definitely fought a few times," Sakura says when Ino asks her about Takeru. "He's been really great about everything, but even an angel like him gets worked up over the fact that the man who dominated the majority of my life is still a huge part of my life."

But Ino sees them walking the streets sometimes, talking and laughing. And the way Takeru looks at Sakura makes her think that he'll stay, no matter how much he gets worked up over Sasuke—and the way Sakura's fingers linger on his sleeve shows that she hopes he does.

Because life isn't clean, is it? So rarely does it have crisp edges and simple endings, and sometimes, beginnings are unexpected and wonderful. Opportunities can be around every corner, and so can disappointment.

Ino loves it. She's never been one for the predictable or the mundane, and it's reflected in her life as a shinobi, in the man she chose, and every time she walks through the front doors of the Torture and Interrogation Force. She is a force to behold, demanding attention from every room she enters, shoulders squared and strong and head held high.

She feels eyes on her and she looks up from her plate. Shikamaru's gaze from across the grill doesn't falter when their eyes lock.

"What?"

"You've been different lately," he says.

Chouji, whose tunnel vision keeps him from noticing anything other than the meat, continues eating with enthusiasm.

"Well," she sits up a little straighter, "things change."

Shikamaru shrugs. "I don't."

"I think you've changed," she insists. But when he raises an eyebrow in question, she just smiles.

There's no point in telling him if he doesn't realize it himself.

—

"I formally introduced Takeru and Sasuke yesterday."

Ino violently reels backwards in her seat. "_And?_"

"Oh, God." Giddy giggles burst from Sakura. "Sasuke was _so_ pouty. He was visibly upset all night."

"He was jealous, no doubt."

"Absolutely no doubt at all. But then Takeru said he wanted to stay and watch the three of us train, and I'm pretty sure he only did that to scope out Sasuke's abilities."

Ino is like a child being told a story at bedtime. "And then?"

Sakura laughs. "Takeru got a little pouty too."

Ino coos. "Look at you go, Haruno Sakura, apple of everyone's eye!" She feels a sense of accomplishment when a blush colors Sakura's cheeks.

"Well, I'm sure Sasuke will get over me soon," she says, clearing her throat.

"I'm not so sure about that," Ino says with a raised eyebrow. "He committed to revenge and stopped at nothing to achieve it—who's to say he won't go to the same lengths for you?" She asks this mostly in jest, although there is a part of her that wonders if Sasuke has ever considered the concept of letting go.

"Because love is different from revenge?"

"_He_ doesn't know that."

"Mm." Sakura looks unconcerned. "If I can move on, so can he."

The art of moving on, Ino has come to realize, is slow. Almost unperceivable. It cannot be forced, but it will undoubtedly happen. Without really noticing, it even happened to her, and when she looks at herself, she almost doesn't remember who she used to be.

"So." She finishes the last of her tea. "What's next?"

Sakura surveys the tea house, and speaks in a hushed tone. "Well, don't tell anyone this because it's still in the very early stages, but rumor has it that the Water Country wants to officially join the Fire-Wind Alliance."

"_What?_ Oh my God, that's huge! But why?" For the past several decades, the Water Country has been on neutral terms with Fire and Wind—which hasn't always been great, but it's better than the cold, tense relationship they have with Earth and Lightning.

"Tsunade-sama thinks it has to do with Suna's new medical program. They see the benefits and they want in."

"That's…" Ino leans back in her seat. "That's incredible. You're making _history_, Sakura."

"I'm just glad the medic-nin trend is finally catching on. It took everyone long enough." Sakura brushes off her accomplishments, as per usual, but Ino catalogues it so she can bring it up on future occasions because hell, she deserves it. "Anyway, moving on—isn't there something you need to tell me?"

"What do you mean?" Ino searches her brain, but draws a blank.

"I'm not saying that Tsunade-sama mentioned something about the new manager of the Interrogation Force, but I _definitely_ heard Tsunade-sama mention something about the new manager of Interrogation Force." Sakura regards Ino with raised eyebrows and expectant eyes, and the reminder has Ino slamming the table so hard the tea house goes silent.

"Oh my God, I _totally_ forgot—there's always just so much going on these days that I didn't tell you. Yes! Yes, that's me! I got promoted!"

"How do you forget your own promotion?"

"I don't know. Things have been busy and Ibiki-senpai had hinted at it for weeks so it just felt like the natural flow of things. But yes! I'm back to a regular sleeping schedule, bitches."

"So like, what are your responsibilities now? Do you still interrogate or are you more or an administrative figure?"

"There's definitely more paperwork involved, yeah, but there's no way I could confine myself to a desk. I was given the position because there are plans for setting up short term torture training programs for ANBU—instead of, you know, the standard 'spontaneously torture them during their exam and see if they can handle it' method they've been doing for decades."

"Ah." Sakura nods in understanding. "That almost seems _too_ reasonable."

"Right? Moving on from archaic training practices? Unthinkable." Ino laughs. "So I'll be working with Ibiki-senpai and some ANBU advisors on how to go about doing that, but it's basically my project. Ibiki-senpai has a new apprentice now and he enjoys interrogation way too much to part with it for long."

"That's really cool. I'm happy for you, Ino."

"Thanks." In truth, Ino never really saw herself as someone who could put together any sort of training program—that was always more of Sakura's thing. But her time under Morino Ibiki's tutelage made her realize that the only shinobi who could withstand torture were certifiably insane, and it made her think about how Konoha's certifiably insane shinobi ended up being detrimental to the village and how training their ANBU forces is probably better in the long run. So maybe it's not about the details of putting together an education system that matters to educators, but the vision behind it.

She snaps out of her thoughts when she notices Sakura watching her with a smile on her face. "What?"

Sakura shrugs. "I don't know. Nothing. Life is just great, I guess."

Ino's heart warms. "Yeah, it is."

—

And it's not that life will always be great. Because it won't. Sometimes it's hard.

(Ino and Shikamaru sitting in the waiting room with Chouji's family while waiting for Chouji to come out of emergency surgery.)

Sometimes it's awkward.

(Witnessing Takeru and Sasuke bearing each other's presence during group dinners at Ichiraku.)

Sometimes it's joyous.

(Coming home from a mission drained and miserable, and being surprised with flowers and a candlelit dinner for their two year anniversary that she was out of town for.)

"You're late!"

"Sorry, sorry, I got caught up chatting with Temari—it's not often that we get to talk. Hey…did you know that she and Shikamaru have gone on a few dates?"

And it is always, always surprising.

"Oh! Wow. Long distance. That might actually be right up Shikamaru's alley."

And Ino and Sakura begin again.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Do I suck? Absolutely. I am so, _so_ sorry for dangling the fact that this is the last chapter and then disappearing for two months. In ways, this fic has paralleled some of my own emotional hurdles and I don't think I was ready to write about moving on and life being an adventure when it didn't really feel that way for me.

But! Here I am. And here this is. And I hope you all enjoyed it.


End file.
